Buying an ottoman bed for a small guest room

I bought my own apartment recently and was able to scrape enough pennies together to buy a 2bed flat so that friends and family can visit without turning my living room into a spare bedroom. Especially with the noise, my freezer makes every hour.

This presented itself with a small dilemma—I only own one bed and had the long decision process of what to get for that room. The room is quite small, measuring only 2.6m x 2.6m which is just enough room to get a double bed in with room to walk around it. That’s not great if you want to add storage to the room also.

As it is a guest room, I realised that a small amount of hanging space was required and then plenty of hidden storage for those short stays. I attached some rails to the wall with hangers so that shirts and dresses could be hung up and not creased, and then had to think about hidden storage.

This led me to think about under-bed storage and how this is going to be needed to provide that space. An ottoman bed is generally a popular choice when it comes to this—plenty of storage space and visibility of everything in one place. I started my search on Wayfair looking through more than 250 options of ottoman bed.

I chose the Laverock Upholstered Ottoman Bed by Mercury Row as it looked simple, comfortable, easy-to-assemble and opened at the side, rather than end—a decision I made given the angle of the door in the room which allowed me to have greater space on one side of the room.

With modern homes getting smaller and smaller, finding clever ways to make the most of the space you have is crucial—I’ve long wanted to find a source of furniture designed for the small home but we’re left with a few pieces which have dual-purposes rather than fully considered for their requirement.

Why do we need a chest of drawers in a bedroom? They take up valuable space and provide only one use. Combining a bed and storage is an obvious way to reduce unnecessary furniture and enlarge rooms. For hanging space, consider just the pieces which require hanging, and accommodate for those only. Modern fabrics allow us to fold our clothes away, so do this as much as possible. This is how you can achieve clutter-free bedrooms.

Ottoman beds do just this function—a bed and storage. Practical, functional, simple. Styles might have evolved but these modernist ideas are still true and being designed within contemporary furniture. We just need to embrace them and get rid of unnecessary furniture.

Having worked in design for the past decade, Daniel started ateliertally.com as a discussion of timeless, modernist product design. Trained as a graphic designer, he also has an avid interest in typography. You can follow him on Twitter @ateliertally.